What is the default text size on Android?

Question

I have a mixture of Buttons and an own View, where I set my text size using Paint.setTextSize(). I want the text size to look the same like the text on the Button. Now, I can of course set the text size of the button to e.g. 18sp, and use 18 in my view. But for a better integration, I simply would like to know, what text size is "normal" for buttons. From my test, it should be something like 12sp, but I have not found any documentation on this.

Leaving the default sizes leaves way too small text on the view.

Maybe I should use still another approach to this issue?

Solution 1

This will return default size of text on button in pixels.

Kotlin

val size = Button(this).textSize

Java

float size = new Button(this).getTextSize();

Solution 2

In general:

Three "default" textSize values:

 - 14sp
 - 18sp
 - 22sp

These values are defined within the following TextAppearances:

 - TextAppearance.Small
 - TextAppearance.Medium
 - TextAppearance.Large

More information about Typography can be found in the design guidelines

Related to your question:

If you don't set a custom textSize or textAppearance, TextAppearance.Small will be used.

---

Update: Material design:

New guidelines related to font and typefaces. The standard rule of 14sp remains (body).

Examples how to set textappearances

AppCompat version:

android:textAppearance="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Body"

Lollipop and up version:

android:textAppearance="@android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Body"

Solution 3

Looks like someone else found it: What are the default font characteristics in Android ?

There someone discovered the default text size, for TextViews (which use TextAppearance.Small) it's 14sp.

Solution 4

Default values in appcompat-v7

<dimen name="abc_text_size_body_1_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_body_2_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_button_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_caption_material">12sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_1_material">34sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_2_material">45sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_3_material">56sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_display_4_material">112sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_headline_material">24sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_large_material">22sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_medium_material">18sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_menu_material">16sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_small_material">14sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_subhead_material">16sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_subtitle_material_toolbar">16dp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_title_material">20sp</dimen>
<dimen name="abc_text_size_title_material_toolbar">20dp</dimen>

Solution 5

http://petrnohejl.github.io/Android-Cheatsheet-For-Graphic-Designers/

Text size

Type    Dimension
Micro   12 sp
Small   14 sp
Medium  18 sp
Large   22 sp

View more solutions

Comments

[Rene]

Well, seems it is unkown. So I choose 16sp. This looks good enough, while not being too small (I need glasses already or a HTC HD :-) By the way, to scale the font for the graphics you need to find the scaling factor for your device first with float scale = getContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics().density; Multiply this with your desired text size in sp, and set the size with Paint.setTextSize.

[user207421]

possible duplicate of What are the default font caracteristics in Android?

[Richard Le Mesurier]

Searching the web for abc_text_size_medium_material (one of the standard size dimensions) gives the Material dimensions XML file from App Compat which contains all the standard sizes.

[Ram Patra]

Would like to add to the above list, 12sp for Micro

[Andrew T.]

On the other hand, TextApperance.Micro is actually non-existent. See this question

[Karsten]

Interestingly, even in the Material theme the small/medium/large sizes are still 14/18/22 even though 18 and 22 aren't standard sizes as per the Material typography guide. Presumably this is for backwards compatibility.